Sunday, March 14th- Arrival in Haiti

Upon arrival at the Air France ticket counter in Miami, I learned that their luggage policy was even less accommodating, making no special allowances for relief supplies, etc. "That will be $100 for each additional bag (i had two, a suitcase and the crutches), and $100 for each overweight bag!" I managed to shuffle the weight of my supplies around so that I had only 1 overweight piece... Even then, I still would have had to front $300! I prayed, and prayed again... "God, you know that the Haitians need everything that I'm bringing... please make it possible for me to bring them now."

Garry and his friend David had brought me to the Miami airport and were trying to negotiate things in Creole with the Haitian attendant at the ticket counter. She stood firm, and I was preparing to "pay-up" or send back some of the supplies with Garry, when I turned around to find him talking to a guy waiting in line to check his bags. Garry spotted him and his team sporting "Yele Haiti" t-shirts, Wycliffe-Jean's aid organization. Apparently, volunteers from "Yele Haiti" just need to bring their personal belongings as they have all their logistics ready and waiting for them in Haiti! So, our new friend Gregory, aggreed to check in my extra pieces with himself and another team members! He even paid took care of saran-wrapping my crutches for me! My bags went for free again! God certainly provides a way!

I met 5 of my team members in the waiting area... Jason a Nurse Practitioner; Bradley a pastor; Erick an inner-city school teacher; Sarah-Jane an E.R. nurse; and David a Pilates instructor... all from Nashville, Tennessee. When I learned of the troubles they went through to get Miami, my struggles seemed rather miniscule! Jason had flown-in on his own. The rest, after numerous flight cancellations and rebookings, were told upon arrival to the Nashville airport, that their flight was delayed and the soonest they could make alternate travel plans to Haiti would be the following Thursday, unless they could find another way to get to Miami! Having only 12 hrs to spare for a 1000 mile drive, the four high-tailed it to the rental car counter and drove practically non-stop with mounds of luggage in a tiny rental car from Nashville to Miami! I can hardly comprehend what they did to get to Haiti, and there's many more stories like theirs from my other team members!

I sat next to a native Haitian on the flight to Haiti, who studied film in L.A. and was now working for the department of disabilities in the Haitian gov't. He saw me attempting to make sense of the creole medical dictionary I was studying, and offered his help. He was their during the earthquake, and told me of the sheer horror of the situation... He had just left his office not 15 min prior to the cataclysm. He got out of his car and was overwhelmed with terror as he saw buildings crumble on either side of him, and people scrambling to save their lives! The most horrifying 35 seconds of his life!

I caught a glimpse of the "sea" of tent-cities scattered throughout PAP as we made our decent. I braced myself for a very different and sobering experience in Haiti. What a joyful surprise to be greated by the vibrant music and smiles of Haitian band of singers clad in bright yellow "Western Union" t-shirts! They sang and played just as joyfully as they did when I arrived in Haiti last June! (see video). Throughout all their losses, one thing that remains with the Haitians is their astounding resilience and joy for living!

It was a bit chaotic getting our luggage, as the airport terminal was damaged and they didn't have a vendor belt. we basically waited in a semicircle in a warehouse-type building as they hand-delivered our pieces from the trucks. One of my bags was missing, expected to arrive with a freight Monday morning. We waited just outside the airport for a few hours to pick-up a few other team members. While waiting, we got to interact with some of the street kids lingering outside our tap-tap vehicle. Some of these kids are as young as 4 years old, and wander the streets independently or w/ siblings... We gave them some water and some gummy candies we had handy.

Our drive up to the orphanage was long and tiring... about 2 hrs of bumpy, rocky "tap-tap" travel on hard wooden benches, with luggage about to topple on some of us, and dust and exhaust getting into our noses and eyes. The laughter and antics perpetually emitting from Erick and others, made the ride fly by!

I was thrilled to see Carline, Garry's older sister (my sister too), and Djanna, her beautiful little niece who traveled and worked with us throughout the week! She was one I thought of the most when I heard of the earthquake... I PRAISE GOD for sparing her life and that of her entire family!

Upon arrival at the orphanage, we set-up our tents (some of us slept on spare bunk beds in the orphanage), ate dinner, had a group meeting, went to church, and then came back to organize our medical supplies before going to bed (probably around 11pm).